According to Jawaharlal Nehru, “Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit.” This past week in Sansepolcro consisted of just that, the widening of my mind through new discoveries and new life lessons that are priceless. My previous trip to Italy was strictly from a tourist point of view; I went to the touristy spots and only saw what most people define to be “Italia.” I fell in love with Italia back then when I threw a coin over my left shoulder into the Trevi Fountain hoping to return to Rome as the legend suggests. Consequently here I am back in Italy scheduled to return to Roma shortly. I have returned to Italy not as a tourist but as a student, ready to live in Italy not just visit.
Prior to coming to Italy I had never heard of Sansepolcro and wondered why this location was chosen for us to spend an entire semester. Sansepolcro is famous for its beautiful art museum called Museo Civico. Sansepolcro is also known for being the hometown of the famous Renaissance artist Piero della Francesca many of whose paintings hang in this museum. Some of the greatest opportunities of study abroad are now available to me in Sansepolcro. By walking outside, my textbooks come alive from the pages. My art history professors, The Bankers, refuse to let us just look at the Madonna della Misericordia by Piero in the book, they insist that we view how rich a gold the background is compared to the ultramarine of Mary’s cloak. When viewing The Resurrection also by Piero, a feeling of triumph is aroused as I view Christ stepping out of his tomb defeating death while the sleeping soldiers lie at his feet. It is one thing to look at some fresco on the wall in a museum but it is quite another thing to experience and analyze it, to go deeper into the meaning of what the artist was thinking when he painted such a picture. The Bankers have a quote for art history class that has become my motto for this whole study abroad experience, “You cannot know without seeing and you cannot see without knowing.” They use this to explain the artwork, meaning that you cannot know the picture fully until you have experienced it and you cannot experience the picture standing in front of it if you do not know about it. To me this explains how we learn and define who we are in the world around us. We think we know about ourselves and our culture through others’ descriptions, the media, and from living in the US, but we cannot fully understand our own culture. It is not until we leave the US and take a good look at ourselves from a different lense that we understand what we are really like compared to the rest of the world. I have been learning about myself and about being an American. It is funny to sit in the café and play the game, “lets see if we can pick out the American tourist.” No doubt we are usually successful in picking out the “I look like I am going to climb Mount Everest” back packer or the “let’s try to fit in as much as possible but fail” tourist. Getting to take on a different lifestyle than the one I left in America has been such an interesting opportunity. I have been meeting several people during my time in Sansepolcro, people from all different nationalities. In one evening I met two Australians named Josh and Nick, a Norwegian girl named Julie, and several other Italian guys and girls. From talking to so many different people I realize how large the world is but how people in general are so much alike. Some of the best learning experiences have come from the mistakes I have made in trying to figure out this new culture. I have learned that Italians do not typically drink milk with shots of espresso and that eating pizza with your hands is just as bad as not eating with your mouth closed. Trying to order marinara dipping sauce (which doesn’t exist in Italy) looked like a skit from SNL. Limited
vocabulary and lack of knowledge for what is normal resulted in a huge bowl of cold tomato sauce in the middle of our table accompanied by confused stares. Maybe eventually I can go somewhere and not so easily pass as an American.
vocabulary and lack of knowledge for what is normal resulted in a huge bowl of cold tomato sauce in the middle of our table accompanied by confused stares. Maybe eventually I can go somewhere and not so easily pass as an American. Upon my return to Italy I have been able to see things that I would never see in the USA or even in the touristy spots in Italy. Sansepolcro was bombarded last week by men in tights parading around with big sticks and instruments, and it has been very enjoyable. Meredith students were asked to participate in the annual festival in Sansepolcro called the Palio de Balestra. The Balestra is a weeklong medieval festival with traditions that date back to the14th century. The events, which include an opening ceremony, a sbandieratori flag presentation and a local cross bow tournament (between Porta Romana and Porta Fiorentina which are the two parts of Sansepolcro) all lead up to one final crossbow tournament between Sansepolcro and Gubbio. The Balestra dates back to 1594 and was started as a means of practicing and refining crossbow archery. The result of the competitive Balestra produced protectors of the town with great aim and a dangerous weapon. The people of Sansepolcro still take this local tradition very seriously. I was able to experience the tradition first hand as a maiden dressed up on the sidelines of the opening ceremony. Each one of us was given a renaissance style gown and matching doughnut-looking hats to match. I was given a red velvet skirt with a dark blue velvet off the shoulder blouse to match; a costume to make any renaissance fair junkie excited. All the costumes were beautiful and each one of them varied in style. Everyone was ready to shed their costume after parading all around the town twice behind the drummers and the flag carriers. The parading and cheering became a daily phenomenon last week in Sansepolcro. The girls became particularly fond of the flag boys, who were very good looking and talented. We hope to acquire lessons on how to twirl flags properly from them.
My overall experience in Sansepolcro has been a wonderful one, full of learning opportunities and excitement, but it hasn’t been a walk in the park. My classes here are just as hard if not more difficult than the ones at Meredith: learning a new language with no background experience as well as adjusting to a new way of living have not been easy. The good moments have definitely outweighed the difficult moments, and growth only comes from being moved outside of my comfort zone. I look forward to seeing how I will grow over the next semester. Ciao,
Meredith
